Note 60 — SERMON V. PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST’S FIRST COMING. Isaiah xlii. 9.
Reading edition
The Lord himself shall give you a sign, Isai. vii. 14.—This SIGN (and the extraordinary introduction of it, in the words quoted, indicates no less) had plainly a recondite and even complicated meaning!
1. As addressed to Ahaz, it was simply an ASSURANCE, that his deliverance from his two great enemies was now at hand.
2. As addressed to the house of David—Hear ye now, O house of David—it was a TYPE of Christ.
3. It was, farther, a TOKEN, or pledge, that the remote deliverance of the house of David by Immanuel, should hereafter take place, just as the approaching deliverance of Ahaz, by the prophet’s Son, would be seen to do.
4. This sign, when fulfilled in the near event, would, thenceforward, become a PROOF, or evidence, that it would be fulfilled in the remote one.
5. Lastly, in the Antitype, the sign was a MIRACLE, properly so called.
So eminently was this Child, a SIGN! A sign, in all the senses of the word, as employed by the Jewish prophets; and to all the purposes, for which signs were given.